On Technology

Peter Edman

These are some of the resources we found useful in considering how to respond to technology as we were compiling our new curriculum, Children of Prometheus: Technology and the Good Life, directed by Dan Russ (and afterwards as well). 

Nonfiction

• Wendell Berry, Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition (Counterpoint 2000)
• Albert Borgmann, Holding on to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium (Chicago 1999)
• G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905) (e-text)
• Nicols Fox, Against the Machine: The Hidden Luddite Tradition in Literature, Art, and Individual Lives (Shearwater 2002)
• Jacques Ellul, The Technological Bluff (Eerdmans 1990). Heavy but worthwhile.
• John Gray, Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions (Granta 2004). This provocative agnostic has written a book that is the contemporary equivalent of Chesterton's Heretics.
• Romano Guardini, Letters from Lake Como: Explorations in Technology and the Human Race (Eerdmans 1981, 1994)
• Alan Jacobs, Shaming the Devil: Essays in Truthtelling (Eerdmans 2004). In addition to a profound essay on technology at the end of the book, this volume also addresses other literary topics from the perspective of Christian humanism.
• Stanley L. Jaki, The Origin of Science and the Science of Its Origin (Scottish Academic Press 1979). A discussion on the origins of science and the distinctive role of the Christian faith in its emergence. If you cannot find a copy, consider also Rodney Stark's recent books, including The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.
• Stanley L. Jaki, The Road of Science and the Ways to God (Chicago 1980)
• Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World (Perseus 1995) (free electronic text) (Amazon paperback)
• Kevin Kelly, The Technium, a book in progress on the meaning of technology (2004–present).
• C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (Macmillan 1947)
• Alister E. McGrath, The Science of God: An Introduction to Scientific Theology (Eerdmans 2004)
• David F. Noble, The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention (Penguin 1997)
• John Polkinghorne, The God of Hope and the End of the World (Yale 2002)
• John Polkinghorne, The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-up Thinker (Princeton 1994)
• Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (Vintage 1992)
• Quentin Schultze, Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age (Baker 2002)
• Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (Ecco 2004)
• Neal Stephenson, In the Beginning . . . Was the Command Line (HarperPerennial 1999). (e-text) Now slightly dated given the development of the software industry since it was written, yet still worthy of attention.
• Edward Tenner, Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences (Knopf 1996)

Fiction

• Michael Crichton, State of Fear (HarperCollins 2004). Controversial and gripping, if a bit weak in character development. Not to be missed, if only for the questions it will raise.
• Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Knopf 2005)
• P. D. James, The Children of Men (Knopf 1993)
• Walker Percy, The Thanatos Syndrome (Farrar Straus Giroux 1987)
• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) (e-text)
• Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra 1992). A novel of cyberspace.
• Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra 1995). A novel of nanotechnology.
• Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon (Eos 1999). A novel of cryptography and privacy.

Reports

• Leon Kass, editor, Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Human Happiness. A Report by the President’s Council on Bioethics, 2003.
• Leon Kass, editor, Being Human: Core Readings in the Humanities (Washington, D.C., The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2003). It is now out of print, though you can see the table of contents. However, the book has also been released under the same title by Norton in 2004.

Films

• Forbidden Planet, directed by Fred M. Wilcox (1956)
• The Gods Must Be Crazy, directed by Jamie Uys (1980)
• Time Bandits, directed by Terry Gilliam (1981)
• Brazil, directed by Terry Gilliam (1985)
• Fast, Cheap, & Out of Control, directed by Errol Morris (1997)
• Gattaca, directed by Andrew Niccol (1997)
• Dark City, directed by Alex Proyas (1998)
• Wit, directed by Mike Nichols (2001)

Other Resources

• The New Atlantis A journal of technology and society from the Ethics & Public Policy Center
• Engines of Our Ingenuity, website for the public radio program that “tells the story of how our culture is formed by human creativity”

Lists, Science and Technology, Thu 16 Feb 2006